Eh, if the multiplayer doesn't hold back the single player, I don't mind if it's put in. People keep whining about multiplayer as if it's some scourge on gaming and an affront to their senses, but it seems like a lot of whining over nothing, IMO.

2 is amazing. 1 is pretty good. One had extremely repeative level design which held it back from being an "A" game for me, but it's still definitely worth a playthrough, and pretty neccessary for playing 2, which is a masterpiece.

FYI: It seems EA decided to start charging $59.99 on their PC games a few months ago. Medal of Honor debuted at that price, Dragon Age 2 is going for that price, and Crysis 2 has that as the list price on Amazon. Definitely not the start of a trend with ME3.

I actually think co-op might be nice for ME3, but I doubt there's really much point in putting in competitive multiplayer (though I guess that's going to be stuck in), and the co-op I'm thinking of is more of a Secret of Mana-type thing where others can take control of your team mates for awhile. Even then I wouldn't want it to be at the cost of the pause while playing with the radial for abilities in single player.

Co Op Multiplayer doesn't have to go through the single player campaign. It can be done in a Splinter Cell: Conviction style that lets players go through stuff that's happening behind the scenes or something.

The multiplayer could be great, in which case I will be the first one to extol the virtues of such a new feature. At the same time, does anyone really see this becoming a huge multiplayer sensation along the lines of Call of Duty or Halo? I don't want to see resources taken away from a single-player project in order to put something into the game that has a limited lifespan. Does anyone play Bioshock 2 for the multiplayer? Will people still be playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood three months from now? I could be wrong, and Mass Effect 3 could end up featuring the best multiplayer this side of making love (the best multiplayer experience ever, IMO), but I doubt it. As long as this development doesn't hurt the quality of the single-player campaign (which is impossible to judge because we will never play the "could-have-been" Mass Effect 3 with only single-player) then we have no reason to complain/worry.